Apple on Tuesday took the wraps off a revolutionary 64-bit upgrade to Final Cut Pro, dubbed version X, which will arrive on the Mac App Store in June for just $299.

Apple previewed the new software Tuesday during the FCP User Group SuperMeet at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas. Final Cut Pro X will be sold through the Mac App Store starting in June for the low price of $299.

The Cupertino, Calif., company promised that the new version of Final Cut Pro will be "as revolutionary as the first version of FCP," Eric Reagan of Photography Bay reports.

Final Cut Pro X has been rebuilt from the ground up and will include support for all processor cores through Grand Central Dispatch. In a move sure to please professional users, the new version of FCP will support high-definition 4K resolution.

Other notable features include editing during import, scalable rendering and a resolution independent playback system, director and editor Rob Imbs reported via Twitter.

Director Larry Jordan noted on his blog that Apple's presentation on Tuesday was nearly identical to the presentation given to industry professionals six weeks ago.

Final Cut Pro X ColorBoard | Source: Apple via Larry Jordan

In February, Jordan revealed that Apple had invited a group of power users to preview the new version of Final Cut Pro. Though he was unable to give specific details, he promised the update would be "a jaw-dropper."

Final Cut Pro X Effects | Source: Apple via Larry Jordan

Preview of updated Final Cut Pro X UI | Source: Photography Bay

As reported by Photography Bay, new features in Final Cut Pro X include:

Fully color-managed Final Cut based on colorsync.
Resolution-independent playback system up to 4K formats.
Background rendering built into application.

Automatic import features
Media editing before ingest.
Image stabilization. "Deal with rolling shutter on the way in."
People detection.
Shot detection, can detect medium shots, close-ups, etc. during import.
Non-destructive color balance as media is being ingested.
Audio clean-up, with options to eliminate hum or rumble during import.
New automatic import features | Source: Rob Imbs

Media management

Range-based keywords, allowing users to add keywords selected ranges within a clip without subclipping.
Smart collections, a method for categorizing media by type, number of people in shot, framing, etc. "Smart collections looks very iMovie-ish."
Clip connections: "primary audio and video are locked synced together," with no way to accidentally knock them out of sync.
Final Cut X timeline | Source: Photography Bay

Improved timeline
Magnetic timeline: "If you slide a clip down the timeline, long clips (i.e., secondary audio) wont collide with other clips. The other clips will drop down to a new drag and nothing is pushed out of sync."
Compound clips: "You can combine multiple clips into a single clip to make sequence easier to understand. Everything that is associated with compound clips is still accessible, but moves together with later edits."
Inline precision editor: "You can double-click on the seam between 2 clips and the timeline opens up to show whats outside the handles."
Auditioning: A non-destructive way to compare edits and effects, allowing users to "throw effects or b-roll into timeline" during the organization process.

Similar to iMovie, Final Cut Pro X offers a film strip view for content. Users can highlight sections of content in the filmstrip view to add keywords. "Selecting those keyword items brings up just those sections of content," Reagan noted.

In a nod to power users, Apple claims to have designed the new Final Cut Pro so that "everything can be driven from the keyboard."

The software also reportedly adds "localized adjustments," which allow users to select an object -- like a face -- and make adjustments to only that part of the image. Users can also adjust the area and feathering of the local adjustment.

Apple also touted the performance of the current version, Final Cut Pro 7. The company noted that it is popular in the indie film community and essential for the broadcast community.

Apple boasted that there are 2 million Final Cut Pro users with a 94 percent satisfaction rate. It also said that Final Cut Pro is growing twice as fast as its competitors, and said that Adobe and Avid are "in a race for second place."

Photography Bay also has a rough video of Apple's announcement from Tuesday available on its site.

Last week, reports emerged that Apple had pressured other SuperMeet sponsors to back out of planned presentations in order to free up stage time at the event.

Apple's last major revision to Final Cut Studio came in July 2009 and added more than 100 new features, including real time collaboration via iChat Theater and expanded ProRes codecs.

"promising it will be as "revolutionary" as the first version of the software"

I'm a Apple fanboy, a very happy Apple stock owner, and a daily user of FCP.

HOWEVER... this is a promise to take with a grain of salt. The first version of FCP was revolutionary only for its price point, and NOT for any other technical or creative reason. One could make the point that Premiere Pro was first at that price point.

YES! This is EVERYTHING I wanted and more! I am in love with this Upgrade! So many of these changes fix snags in my workflow or improve areas where I'm not 100% satisfied with my current output! I am delighted! Instant buy for me. As soon as I see it on the App Store, I'm getting it.

Yeah, that is kinda scary. It sounded like some of the functionality of Color and Motion will be worked into the new Final Cut, and I'm wondering if Apple things that will be good enough for most users. Might be the last update we see to those programs. Could always keep 'em around and buy the new Final Cut for editing.

$299 is a steal, if it's everything it sounds like. Cheesy iMovie interface or not, I'm in for that price.

Yeah I don't like the GUI. I'd prefer something more inline with with Nuke or Houdini.
That gray bar in the middle is an eye sore! I hope that you can float the viewers, I'd hate a single window view where they are stuck.

Premiere is looking mighty tempting right about now. I'll have to play with FCP X first though before I make a final decision.

Rant --
Looks like the slickest interface ever ... for a mouse-driven editor. It plays catch-up to most of the rendering/64bit stuff to Adobe, plus has a few genuinely great tools that will help the "1 man band" corporate/wedding/etc video makers out there, but not really THAT much for the TV pros. Regardless, I am excited to try it out and have some fun messing around on the timeline. There are some genuinely good ideas going on here.

Unfortunately... there were several things that FCP never did in the first place which solidified AVID's position as the go-to software when you needed more bells and whistles ...and it seems that is still the case ... now more so than ever.

I use FCP about 10 hours every day. I am currently cutting 3 different TV shows on it. I've had a wishlist building in my head over the years of the things that would make my job, as a professional TV editor, easier and faster. Believe it or not... this demo only addressed 1 of them - the rendering issue - and that isn't even my biggest concern.

In my humble opinion this release definitively positions FCP-X as a Premiere Pro competitor for the indie and prosumer market. It definitely makes AVID's interface look even more hideous and antiquated, but it also widens AVID's unique position as the only editing software with all the bells and whistles to play nice in broadcast TV.

My initial reaction is; if they're offering this via the Mac App Store, would it still come with all the Jam Packs that the existing FCS includes? If so that would be a tremendously large download size. Maybe Apple will cut bundling the Jam Packs and start selling them in stores as a separate bundle and that's where some of the savings are coming from.

If Final Cut Studio is only $299, I wonder what price for Logic Studio, maybe just $199! That or they could stop selling Logic Studio as a separate bundle.

"promising it will be as "revolutionary" as the first version of the software"

I'm a Apple fanboy, a very happy Apple stock owner, and a daily user of FCP.

HOWEVER... this is a promise to take with a grain of salt. The first version of FCP was revolutionary only for its price point, and NOT for any other technical or creative reason. One could make the point that Premiere Pro was first at that price point.

At that price a tool that will be easy to use for kids up to Big budget Film editing 4k thru blackmagic hardware will be epic!
Edit while ingesting!!! use of all cores!!! Some of the new breakout boxes with thunderbolt are 1000.00 bucks and FC will be 300.. more money for other stuff!
The impact it will have among schools, indies, etc. The price by itself is revolutionary. Can't wait to get mine.